Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or and of the characters, save Amy. Lalaaalaaa

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Chapter 7

It was ages until the Gummi Ship finally jolted to halt and Leon got up and called "I'm going to go have a look around"

"Can't I come? I need a walk" whined Amy, fluttering her eyelashes.

"Let's all go!!" put In Yuffie

"Oh, great, let's have a Teddy Bear's Picnic while we're at it!" mumbled Leon, under his breath. So they all got out of the Gummi Ship and onto a sandy beach. It was night-time, and a warm-ish breeze was blowing. Everyone launched into a debate about whether or not they should disturb someone, because everyone on this tiny island was obviously asleep. They were talking about someone in particular, Amy couldn't catch their name, but she saw a silhouette of an oddly-shaped tree on a kind of platform which jutted out to sea. She decided to take a walk and quietly slipped away without being noticed. As she crossed the bridge, she saw a boy, sitting on the tree gazing into the starry sky, absent-mindedly fingering a chain around his neck, his longish silver hair blowing gently in the breeze.

"Beautiful night, huh?" said Amy, leaning against a very tall, thin coconut tree, gazing out to the horizon herself.

"It is" replied the boy, not seeming to notice the fact that he'd never the girl in his whole life.

"Can I sit with you?" Asked Amy

"Course" said the boy, moving over. She sat, her long, brown hair streaming behind her. They both got lost in their own thoughts, scanning the briefly, so when Cloud shouted "C'mon, squirt, we're goin' back to the Ship" it brought them both back to earth with a bump, and Amy shouted back

"K, be with you in a minute" then she turned to the boy and said "well, it was nice meeting you" and with that, she ran half way across the bridge and then jumped off the edge, landing crouched on the sand. She jumped up and ran across the sand, to the rest.

Riku woke up one very sunny morning, even for his Island, and had the funniest feeling. 'I had the weirdest dream last night.' He thought to himself as he walked down to Sora's house. On the way there, he bumped into Tidus and Wakka, deep in conversation.

"So you say it's a mysterious girl, ya?" Wakka was asking Tidus.

"Yeah. At Sora's house. He's talking to her and her security guard people, well that s what Selphie said, anyway." Tidus broke off at seeing Riku. "Hi, Riku, looking for Sora and Kairi?"

"Yeah, have you seen them?"

"At Sora's house."

"Thanks, bye." Riku carried on walking in the direction of Sora's house, and got a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"I knew I should have had breakfast" he mumbled to himself. Sora's Mum opened the door with a concerned look on her face.

"Hi, Riku, come in, Sora and Kairi are upstairs."

"Thanks." Said Riku, and dashed upstairs to Sora's room. There was a sign on the door saying

' Sora's room' which had always been there, but underneath there was a new one, made out of paper, which read:

' Do Not Disturb.' Riku knocked and said

"Sora, it's me. Can I come in?" there was a pause, and mumbles from inside. Sora and Kairi's voices could be heard saying things like: 'it's only Riku, he's not gonna hurt her.' And 'we cant just leave him out there.' Then Sora's voice called

"Yeah, it's OK, Riku, you can come in." he pushed the door open timidly, to see Sora and Kairi sitting in chairs by Sora's desk, and 4 people, surrounding a girl about his age, sitting on the bed. Riku couldn't help but notice that she was very pretty, but familiar looking. He felt that feeling in his tummy again. When the girl saw him, she smiled.

"Oh. Hello again." She said, cheerfully. Then he realized, the dream he'd had last night hadn't been a dream at all, it was real.

"Oh, um, hi" he replied, and Sora looked at him suspiciously. It wasn't like Riku to go all not-knowing-what-to say like.

"Amy, you know him?" A gorl with big brown eyes and short black hair said. She was standing next to the girl.

"Yeah, I think so" said Amy. "I thought it was a dream, but obviously not."

"When did you meet him?" said a concerned looking blond man, also standing near her.

"It's alright, Cloud. It was last night when we landed and had a look round, you know, you were all arguing about that person."

"Oh. Well, lets get on then" said a dark- haired man with a scar across his face. "Sora. As I was saying before, we need your help. We need you to protect Amy here." They obviously knew Sora.

"OK, yeah, I will" said Sora, "but I don't understand. She looks like an ordinary girl, why would the Heartless want her?"

"Well thank you very much" said Amy, in a very sarcastic, mock offended voice. The blond man ruffled her hair and said in a quiet voice:

"Shut up, squirt."

"Well actually," Said Amy, forgetting to drop her sarcastic tone and smoothing out her hair. "you lot haven't told me what I'm doing in the presence of this ordinary looking, but quite charming young, um. Sora wasn't it?"

"Yeah, that's my name" said Sora, thinking it would be un-professional to laugh, but Kairi seemed to think different, and gave a little giggle.

"So, Leon, tell us. What's she doing here?" asked Kairi

"Well, it's a long story." Said Leon, and they explained the whole Sephiroth, orphanage thing that had happened.

"So, that's it" said Cloud. " but you wanted to know what she's doing here. OK, how to break this down so that Amy can understand." Cloud 'thought' out loud. Amy turned around and gave him a playful punch.. on the leg, seeing as that was what was nearest. Yuffie giggled, Leon agreed, and Aerith began

"Well, she's pure of heart, right?"

"Right" Sora and Amy said together.

"So the heartless are naturally gonna find this necklace, then find her, so they can take over, right?"

"Right"

"So, it's easy, we leave her with the Keyblade Master to protect her while we try and stop them."

"Right"

"But you're probably thinking well why not make it so the Keyblade Master goes to stop the Heartless and we look after Amy?" continued Aerith

"Because we've had enough of her!" said Cloud, playfully, and got another punch in the leg. Aerith ignored this and carried on.

"Because, Sora, you are the only one that can protect Amy fully. You are the one that posseses the Heart made up of more than a tiny bit of Faith, Hope and wishes yourself. Oh, and your friends seem quite keen to help as well" she added as an afterthought, but rightly as Kairi and Riku, along with Sora himself, were interested in finding out more about this girl who had appeared from nowhere.
But obviously the feeling wasn't mutual, as it had just dawned on Amy that she would have to leave Leon, Yuffie, Cloud and Aerith. Sora stood up.

"Looks like I have no choice but to accept. But, where's she gonna stay?" he said.

"I suppose she can stay with me" said Kairi. Amy was sitting there, only just beginning to feel the realness of this. Realizing it wasn't just a wacky dream she was having. These were the only real friends she had ever had, and now they were leaving. She would probably never see them again. Beginning to understand the danger she was in, and that she should be feeling scared, but all she could feel was sorrow. Somehow, she felt safe in the hands of this 15-year-old Keyblade Master, and wasn't afraid if those Heartless, but she felt so sad. Her friends were going to leave her and there was nothing she could do about it.
They were on the sandy beach of the Destiny Islands, and Amy was about to say goodbye. Leon walked up to her, or rather shuffled up to her, and said

"Well, it's been fun. Well. kind of."

"Yeah." Replied Amy, feeling really sad. Leon hugged her quite awkwardly, and at first Amy didn't know what to do, but then she just thought 'sod it' and almost jumped on him. They broke apart. Yuffie came next and they hugged, and when they finished, Amy felt like she just hit rock bottom. Amy couldn't think of anything to say, and neither could Yuffie, so they just looked at each other, and when Yuffie looked into Amy's eyes, she saw right into her heart.

"I'm crap at goodbyes" Aerith said, so out of character, that Amy looked up at her from her awkward position while hugging madly.

"It's not goodbye" Amy said. "We *are* gonna see each other again, I'll make sure of that."

"Bye then, squirt" said Cloud, trying to get out of hugging.

"Don't think you're getting away" Amy said, as she grabbed hold of his arm and hugged him. And as she did, a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"Awwww, come on, nothings that bad." Said Cloud, as it shimmered in the setting sun, before he wiped it off. Somehow, Amy felt happy when she saw him smile.

"Think of the good times we all had together, I mean, you even got a tiny smile outta Captain Broody here."

"Whatever" Said Leon, then he smiled and winked. And it was at that moment that Amy decided she was genuinely happy, for the first time in her life.

"Yeah, Sora will take good care of you." Said Yuffie "So we best be off" they each got another hug, and then said goodbye to everyone, got in the Gummi Ship, and then disappeared through a warp hole. There was an awkward silence when Amy finally stopped waving, and then Kairi said:

"Hey, I'll show you where you're staying."

"OK" they ran off to Kairi's house, leaving Sora and Riku to stand with their eyebrows raised at each other.